9 killed in NYC crash of tourist copter, plane

August 09, 2009|By Tina Susman, Tribune Newspapers

NEW YORK — A sightseeing helicopter and a small plane collided and crashed into the murky Hudson River off lower Manhattan on Saturday, killing all nine people on the aircraft and underscoring the perils of uncontrolled airspace in the busy corridor.

Hours after the crash, which occurred about noon as sunbathers, bicyclists, joggers and tourists crowded the parks lining both sides of the river, divers and search boats were scouring the water for wreckage and victims. Though the water was only 30 feet deep where the aircraft plummeted, visibility was about 2 feet and the current was powerful, hampering recovery efforts, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

At a news briefing held on a pier of the Hudson, a somber Bloomberg said it appeared the crash was "not survivable."

Three bodies had been recovered by the time recovery operations were called off for the evening, said National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman. It was not clear whether the bodies were from the helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350 run by the sightseeing company Liberty Tours, or the plane, which was a single-engine Piper PA-32R.

Bloomberg said the helicopter victims included five Italian tourists and their pilot. The Piper victims, he said, were two passengers, including a child, and the pilot.

The crash occurred about 30 blocks south of where a US Airways jet ditched into the Hudson in January.

Saturday's crash was the result of two aircraft getting too close to each other while flying through an area normally out of bounds to commercial jets but open to small, private aircraft from several airports.

The small aircraft are not supposed to fly above about 1,000 feet in the corridor. That keeps them below jets using the major airports in the area. There also is a common radio frequency that small aircraft may use to keep in touch with each other, but they are not required to use it. It was unclear if either or both of the pilots were using the frequency when the crash occurred.